React: Why Public Transport is a Treasure Trove of Tweet Inspiration
Topic Analysis

The boundaries of ‘proper behaviour’ and the unspoken guidelines for social situations are among those I find most perplexing.

Humans are weird, but I’ve found thatthe most unusual snippets into the true human self tend to surface when we collect a cluster of humans together and place them in an uncomfortably stuffy environment.

smelliest man sat next to me on the bus so i kept coughing loads so he would move but instead he asked me for a bit of my drink

Public transport is a funny world within a funny world in which the consistent caveats of behaviour that dominate our relationships, work and home life go totally out of the window.

This discounted and environmentally friendly form of travel provides a rich sensory experience with an abundance of characters to encounter and emotions to experience. In short, it provides excellent material for a Twitter rant.

Suddenly, a daily commute can turn into an epicentre of social media activity, and our research incorporates 65,000 mentions from a one month period of people talking about what happens on their journeys.

Geo-tagged tweets show that strong patterns of tweeting on trains, buses and subways are a universal occurrence for American and British tweeters. Click here for UK only data

One of those patterns is the streak of mischief and spite that public transport can bring out in people.

“On the subway today…”

Upon taking your seat on a bus, you enter a realm unlike any other. Being on public transport involves a dangerous concoction of being alone whilst simultaneously being observed.

It might seem like everyone else is looking out the window, but you are being watched. And probably live streamed.

Some lady on the train is clipping her nails and not even picking up her cut nails 😷

It would be fair to say that we are at our most judgmental during our commutes, as the data shows that even seemingly innocent acts such as eating or reading appear more frequently than more unhygienic public transport activities like coughing and sneezing.

Try to avoid choosing the wrong clothes or smelling bad if you want to escape being blasted on Twitter.

It is unsurprising that, aside from humans doing fairly normal things like eating and wearing clothes, we also come across a huge amount of befuddling behaviour making an appearance on subway carriages and alike.

I bet you can’t count on hands and feet the amount of times you’ve heard stories starting with ‘on the bus today’ – be they confusing, brave or downright ridiculous.

Riding on public transport is none of our favourite pastimes. The most confusing social parameters combined with a heightened right to judge is a recipe for disaster – but it doesn’t half provide some cracking content.

Seen a guy on the bus give up his seat for a girl, she didnt say thank you or even acknowledge dude. He made her get up & took his seat back

So why not throw caution to the wind with these rules? Put your stinky feet up on the chair or start an argument with a stranger – because in this odd place called public transport, you’ll probably end up on Twitter anyway.

In the nicest way possible this lady on the train smells like a hamsters cage